Aviation Law: The Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988

     The Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988(1988) became law November 3, 1988 and contains many sections which are all centralized around the research and improvement of safety in aviation. The law requires the FAA to research fire and smoke resistant material and maintenance technology, research human factors effect on aviation, research medical conditions and the effects, research air traffic controller technology, research fuel system components to better withstand crashes, and appropriates the funding to do so. 

    I believe this law was instrumental to the aviation industry we know today. Airplanes are now safer from improved aircraft maintenance technology, fire and smoke resistant materials, and from required airframe design testing. In my own job, I see the effects of the improved fire resistant material in our cargo compartments which are required to be keep a fire contained for 195 minutes for Extended Range Twin-Engine Operations (ETOPS).  We covered human factors in the last module which came directly from this act which has improved the safety of aviation substantially. Lastly the strides in air traffic control technology were started from this act. 

    An actual example of the impact of this law can be seen from the establishment of the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division (2017) of the FAA which has two research laboratories. The two laboratories research human performance in all careers in aviation to create a safer industry. They test how new technologies and avionics improve the safety of aviation. Today, most pilots use iPads for most of their flight publications, flight planning, and in flight as another reference for weather. But how does that change the safety of flying if you're distracted with the iPad? That is where the research laboratories come into play to ensure that it is a safe practice to have the iPads. 


Sources:

Aerospace Human Factors Research. (2017, October 3). Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/humanfactors/

Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-591, 102 Stat. 3011 (1988). https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/100/591.pdf

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